NATURAL HISTORY.
Orders of Insects--Stages of Development--Egg, Larva, Pupa, Imago
or Perfect Insect--Three Classes of Bees: Queen, Drones, Workers.
It will be observed from the title of this book that it deals with the
honey-bee. The necessity of this restriction will become immediately
evident when we mention the fact that in Great Britain there are no
less than twenty-seven genera and 177 species of native bees, none of
which have been successfully domesticated except _Apis mellifica_, or
the ordinary hive-bee.
The term "insect" has unfortunately been loosely employed in
popular parlance to include such diverse beings as coral-polyps and
house-flies. As the name itself indicates, it is properly applicable
only to such animals as are more or less distinctly divided into
segments. All true insects, in fact, are plainly divisible in their
perfect state into three portions, the head, thorax, and abdomen.
The most important classes in this portion of the animal kingdom are
distinguished by the characteristics of their wings, and are--
I. _Coleoptera_, or those possessing crustaceous _sheathing_
wing-covers, including all the beetles.
II. _Orthroptera_, having the wings when at rest in _straight_
longitudinal folds, comprising such families as the earwigs,
cockroaches, grasshoppers, and locusts.
III. _Neuroptera_, nerve-winged, characterised by four naked, strongly
reticulated organs of flight, as seen in dragon-flies, may-flies, and
white ants.
IV. _Hymenoptera_, _membrane_-winged, resembling the _Neuroptera_ in
some respects, but with fewer reticulations, and their organs of flight
when in use are hooked together along the margins, so as to expose a
continuous surface. Another distinguishing character is the appendage
at the tail, in the form of either a sting or an ovipositor. The chief
representative families are the bees, wasps, gad-flies, ants, and
ichneumons.
V. _Lepidoptera_, having the wings covered with a _scale_-like powder,
set like the tiles of a house. The butterflies and moths all belong to
this order.
VI. _Diptera_, or _two_-winged insects, embracing the gnats,
"daddy-long-legs," blow-flies, and house-flies.
Less important are the _Homoptera_, which have the wings of the _same
consistence_ throughout, as the aphides or blight-insects.
The _Heteroptera_, having the fore-wings coriaceous (or leathery) at
the base and membranous towards the extremity. These comprise the bug
tribe; while fleas belong to the _Aptera_, or _wingless_ insects.
Insects pass through four stages during their lifetime: the _egg_, the
_larva_, the _pupa_, and the _imago_ conditions. The honey-bee exists
in each of these states.
_The egg._--All the eggs of the community are laid by the queen. The
cells in which they are deposited vary in size and in shape, according
to whether queens, drones, or workers are to be developed in them. In
length the eggs are about one-twelfth of an inch; in shape, oblong,
but a little broader at the upper than at the lower end, and slightly
curved; in colour they are white, with a bluish tinge. Their external
coat is slightly glutinous when they are first laid, and thus they
adhere to the bottom of the cell in which they are deposited.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Egg's and Larva of Bees.]
_The larva._--Under the genial influence of the heat of the hive,
ranging from 66° to 70° Fahr., the formation of the larva from the
egg-contents immediately begins; and, in the course of three days,
a tiny worm or grub has been developed, and makes its way out of
its delicate shell. It now lies curled round, still at the base of
its dwelling, and, fed by the nurse-bees on a jelly-like mixture of
pollen and honey, it rapidly grows. Its food supply is made strictly
correspondent to its wants, and by the time the larva is ready for its
next change not a drop of the jelly is unconsumed. The fleshy white
grub is in shape at first slightly, and afterwards strongly curved,
and a little pointed at each end. The future segments of the insect
now become gradually visible, fifteen in number, and ten of them are
furnished each with a minute aperture on opposite sides of the body,
and connected with air-tubes, or spiracles, by which respiration is
carried on. The segments have also a series of minute tubercles, whose
office seems to be to aid in the motions of the grub, which motions
doubtless contribute to the assimilation of food, and so to growth.
The head of the larva is small, is smooth above, and is furnished with
two little projecting horns, from which will be developed the future
antennæ.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Larvæ.
_a._ Worker larvæ. _b._ Queen larva. _c._ Queen cell sealed.]
The jaws are small, and articulate below a narrow lip. They are
constantly in motion, probably to reduce the pollen-grains existing
in the so-called bee-bread, which, with honey, as already mentioned,
constitute their food. Beneath the jaws, and centrally between them,
is a fleshy protuberance, which has a perforation at its extremity,
through which the larva emits a sticky fluid, similar to that from
which spider's-web or silk is made. With this the grub spins for itself
a cocoon, in which a further and important transformation takes place
in the structure of the insect.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Sealed Cells.]
The time occupied in making this silken dress is, for drone- and
worker-larvæ, thirty-six hours. Princesses, who trouble themselves to
make only half-cocoons, finish theirs in twenty-four hours. So soon
as the grubs are ready for this process, the nurse-bees form over the
entrance to each cell a lid made of wax and a sticky substance called
propolis; leaving, however, minute perforations for the admission of
air. These coverings are darker than the caps of the honey-cells. They
are also somewhat convex over worker-larvæ, and over drone-grubs they
stand out almost hemispherically. Hence it is easy to distinguish
the look of brood cells from that of those containing food-stores.
Moreover, the former are situated usually in or near the centre of each
comb, while the latter, where the two co-exist, are found near the top.
It is very important to learn the difference in appearance between
the two, as several points of successful manipulation depend upon the
knowledge.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--A. Larva full grown, viewed sideways.
B. Larva preparing for pupa state.]
_The nymph or pupa._--In this condition the insect is at first
semi-transparent, and white, with a yellowish tinge. Hour by hour the
various organs of the perfect bee proceed in their development, and
become more and more discernible through the thin pellicle enshrouding
them. On the head, the eyes and antennæ assume their ultimate size
and marvellous structure. The legs and wings are clearly seen folded
lengthwise along the thorax and abdomen. The chitinous covering of
the body attains increasing firmness, and the colour of the exterior
deepens to a greyish brown.
At length, in periods varying in the three classes of inmates of
the hive, maturity is reached. In the case of queens, sixteen days
suffice for complete metamorphosis from the egg to the full-grown
insect. Drones require twenty-four days, and workers from nineteen to
twenty-two days, according to the warmth of the weather, to go through
all their changes.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Worker Larva and Pupa in Comb.]
When ready to emerge from the cell, the young bee nibbles round the
lid of its abode, and bursting its cocoon along the back, it crawls
forth in its imago or perfect condition. Forthwith the busy nurses
clean it from any remains of its silken covering; brush its legs
and antennæ; pull its wings and fuss about it, as if to urge it to
action and to arouse it to a due sense of its newly acquired powers.
Speedily awakened to its responsibilities, the young bee assumes, as
its earliest duties, the tending of the brood-cells, the feeding of
the larvæ, and the various offices so recently performed for itself by
its slightly older sisters. Then, as strength increases, the wings are
tried in flight; the locality of its home is reconnoitred, and in two
or three days after its emergence into its complete condition it issues
forth on journeys, nearer or more remote, in search of stores for the
perpetually recurring wants of the succession of children continually
being reared in the hive.
Each complete community of bees consists of three classes; first, the
queen, who is the parent of all the offspring; second, the drones, or
males; and third, the workers, which are really undeveloped females.